Productivity Performance of U.S. Trunk and Local Servce Airlines in the Era of Deregulation

Abstract

The transition to deregulation of the U.S. air transport industry began in 1976. In this paper we measure total factor productivity growth of the airlines for the first five years of the transition (1976–1980) and compare the performance with that of the preceding years. We find that productivity growth accelerated from 2.8% per year to 5.1% per year. An analysis of covariance model with individual airlines as observations leads to the conclusion that for the trunk airlines nearly all of the acceleration can be explained by increases in output and load factor and decreases in the growth of capacity. For the local service airlines, however, less than half of the acceleration may be so‐explained.

Comportamento dos custos e sua relação com medidas de eficiência operacional em companhias aéreas

“…Estudos seminais da área encontram-se em Caves et al (1983), que compararam o desempenho da produtividade de 11 companhias aéreas com base nas taxas de crescimento. Oum et al (2005) verificaram o desempenho de 10 companhias aéreas americanas, a partir de uma análise comparativa dos anos de 1990 a 2000, recorte temporal justificado pelos acontecimentos econômicos mundiais vivenciados pelo país no período.…”

Regulation, market structure and performance in air passenger transportation

“…Most of the empirical research has concerned the United States, at first inspiring the 1978 domestic airline reforms and later looking at the economic implications of liberalisation and enhanced competition (Caves et al, 1983;Bailey et al, 1985;Liu and Lynk, 1999). 1 US research also demonstrated that certain feared outcomes of liberalisation -such as declines in safety levels, or deprivation of small communities of air service -did not materialise.…”

Financial performance and customer service: An examination using activity-based costing of 38 international airlines

“…In terms of anticipated relationships and expected signs, studies by Caves et al (1983) and others have shown evidence of a positive correlation between average load factors and financial performance while Oum and Yu's work (1999) suggests that average load factor is a reflection of an airline's choice of aircraft and flight frequencies. Fethi et al (2002) find that an increase in the international focus of an airline leads to spatial disparities in its financial environment.…”